To Örebro University

Evolutionary history is embedded in the deep and imperceptible past with traces left in fossils and in the genetic makeup of living organisms. Deep Evolutionary Time (DET) – the time living organisms have existed – is a demanding topic for students and the general public. Visual communication through various static, dynamic, interactive, and immersive visualisation forms is pivotal for interpreting and learning about DET and its implications. Nevertheless, both challenges and opportunities are associated with the interpretation of visualised DET. This review paper illuminates how visualisation of DET has developed, its integration in biology education and outreach, and potential future research avenues concerning visualised DET. We first show that the communication of DET has developed from views of a very young Earth to scientifically grounded concepts, with visual representations like ladders, timelines, tree diagrams, and palaeoimagery significantly shaping perceptions of evolution. We then synthesise research on interpreting DET visual representations, addressing static, animated and interactive forms, palaeoimagery, currently available digital interfaces, and the benefits of combining multiple representations in biology education and outreach. We close by advocating for integrating a historical perspective, critical visual literacy, and emerging interactive visualisations in communicating DET in formal and informal biology education.

Understanding deep evolutionary time is crucial for biology education and for conceptualizing evolutionary history. Although such knowledge might help citizens contemplate their actions in the context of human existence, understanding deep evolutionary time is a demanding cognitive endeavor for students. The enormous magnitudes of evolutionary time are often visually communicated through phylograms and timelines. Given the importance of understanding evolutionary time in various scientific domains at large, there is a need for tools to gauge students’ knowledge about visually communicated deep evolutionary time. In response, we describe the design and validation of an instrument to measure knowledge about the visual representation of deep evolutionary time. Development, expert panel evaluation, and piloting of an initial 14 questions with 139 respondents resulted in a 10-item multiple-choice questionnaire. Subsequent collection and analysis of 212 responses validated the 10-item Deep Evolutionary Time Visual Instrument (DET-Vis). Identification of a single factor suggests a unidimensional construct that represents knowledge about the visual communication of deep evolutionary time. A Cronbach’s alpha of 0.73 yielded an acceptable internal consistency of the instrument. The items of the instrument discriminate well with discrimination coefficients between 0.25 and 0.53. The instrument is of moderate difficulty with difficulty indices ranging from 0.56 to 0.81. The seven-step methodological design and validation procedure of this study yielded a unidimensional, valid, and reliable ten-item deep evolutionary time visual test instrument. The instrument items probe both procedural and declarative aspects of the construct that could warrant future psychometric exploration. Use of DET-Vis in pedagogical practice could help support the teaching of deep evolutionary time at upper secondary and undergraduate levels.

Preschool curriculum policies around the world emphasize the role ofdigital tools in educational practice. At the same time, the availability of tools suchas tablets has increased significantly in the last decade. Although preschools haveworked with these tools during the last years, little is known about what actualactivities teachers implement and perform in practice and how digital tablets can beeffectively integrated. In contributing to filling this gap, we used online surveys toprobe approximately 500 teachers’ use of digital tablets in their practice. Resultsshowed that teachers believe that tablets increase both collaboration and participation.In connection with the subject of technology, many creative ideas and solutionsevolved. Computer programming activities also emerged saliently,which the teacherssaw as a means to foster generic skills and subject knowledge. The findings pointto digital tablets being associated with preschool teachers’ implementation of meaningful, engaging, self-generated, and rich activities. In helping to integrate emerging digital tools in educational practice, teachers are encouraged to consult online forums,web resources, available online courses, and articles. Teachers are also advised toallocate the necessary time required to plan and implement the work.

Communicating evolutionary theory continues to demonstrate significant challenges. One particularly demanding area is comprehending evolutionary time scales. Furthermore, visual representations such as the Tree of Life usually incorporate temporal aspects but require interpreting the underlying biological concepts as well as the representational features used to convey evolutionary meaning.

In this paper, we investigate how users engage with the DeepTree exhibit, an interactive touch table visualization of a dynamic Tree of Life (Block et al., 2012). The main purpose of DeepTree is to visualize the relationship of all life on earth. Specific focus of this paper is to explore how a zooming interactive feature which enables users to move virtually from the origin of life to present day species, influences perception and understanding of evolutionary time associated with the tree metaphor. The aim of the study is to explore how the zooming feature affords new ways of understanding the information which the dynamic tree metaphor conveys, what properties of zooming interactions are associated with various temporal aspects and how moving in time is perceived.

A video recorded clinical, semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant while s/he interacted with the DeepTree application. The analytical method used to treat the generated data was a combination of deductive and inductive coding of the transcripts and accompanying visual recordings.

The findings suggest that DeepTree is a natural and intuitive touch-based interface for navigating the metaphor of biological relationships. Interacting with the visualization induced various positive affective reactions. However, in its present design, DeepTree may not completely support users' understanding of evolutionary time. The results indicate that zooming can be interpreted in different ways. This suggests that the embodied and immersive experience offered by such interactive tree applications might strongly influence users' temporal interpretations associated with evolution concepts if they are designed appropriately.

Despite the acknowledged importance of emotions and feelings in science education, systematic research concerning affect remains sparse. In this regard, a promising research field is the potential of immersive and/or interactive visualizations to enhance learning by promoting affective responses. In building upon our previous research with an interactive visualization, this study focuses on affective dimensions. The aim of the study is to investigate whether interacting with DeepTree, a dynamic visualization of phylogenetic relationships represented as a tree of life, induces the affective responses of curiosity, surprise, confusion and awe. And if so, to ascertain which features and experiences of interacting with the visualization promotes these affections.

Ten students were each interviewed during a clinical, semi-structured interview while answering questions and performing tasks during interaction with the DeepTree application. Data was collected using a video camera mounted above the tabletop capturing auditory, and visual information. In a synthesis of the literature, we formulated a predetermined affective framework to apply in the analysis of the data set to identify affective responses.

Piloting of the framework during a detailed analysis of three students’ transcripts and corresponding video material, preliminary findings reveal that the most commonly expressed affective response was awe followed by confusion and curiosity, with few utterances or experiences indicating surprise. Most conceptual aspects associated with elicited affective responses included time and the unity of life, and to a lesser extent, relationships between organisms and the diversity of life. A strong elicitor of affective responses was the “zooming” feature of DeepTree. Findings of this pilot study confirm previous research that immersive visualizations can induce and enhance affective responses. Encouragingly, the findings also validate the application of the framework as a systematic tool for identifying affective responses.

The work provides further insight into the potential influence of affect in learning science with visualizations.

Modern preschool education is seen as an essential foundation for nurturing children’s digital literacy. Early childhood education environments have witnessed increased emphasis on integrating programming activities in combination with digital tablets. However, little is known about how preschool teachers implement programming as part of pedagogical strategies during practice. In Sweden, although there is a mandate to develop children’s understanding of the digital world, programming is not formally mentioned in the revised preschool curriculum. This study systematically investigates how Swedish preschool teachers implement programming activities in their teaching practice. Data was collected through a national online survey (n = 199). Findings revealed a range of apps and resources used in combination with tablets, where activity integration takes place as unplugged programming, digital programming, or as a combination of the former. Teachers markedly attributed intended learning goals around programming to tenets of computational thinking and “twenty-first century skills”. Moreover, programming was often actively linked to learning in other domains such as science, technology, mathematics, and language, approaches that show traditional Swedish preschool teaching practices being recontextualized in terms of programming. Based on the reported findings that provide insight into the implementation of programming in preschools, a logical future research avenue lies in exploring the documented programming activities from the perspective of the children.

The availability of digital tablets in preschools has increased significantly in recent years. Literature suggests that these tools can enhance students’ literacy and collaborative skills. As society becomes increasingly digitized, preschool curriculum reform also emphasises the subjects of technology and science as priority areas of learning. Teachers’ knowledge and experiences are of utmost importance in carrying out this mandate. Few studies have explored the use of digital tablets to teach preschool technology and science in Sweden, and there is an urgent need to ascertain the role of digital aids as teaching tools. This survey study seeks to determine how digital tablets are used to support preschool children’s learning in general, and with respect to technology education. Preschool educators (n = 327) across Sweden responded to an online survey consisting of 20 closed and 6 open items that probed the use of digital tablets. Survey results revealed a high degree of engagement with digital tablets in preschools, with activities directed toward various subject-related, social and generic skills. Programming, invention, construction and creation, problem-solving, and design emerged saliently as tablet activities in technology subject areas. Opportunities for providing meaningful learning tasks and digital adaptability were seen as pedagogical benefits of using tablets, but increasing expectations to integrate tablet activities with an accompanying lack of digital skills were expressed as limitations. Teachers’ recommendations for future tablet use included defining clearer curriculum guidelines for tablet implementation and adequate training for acquiring digital competence.

The availability of digital tablets in preschools has increased significantly in recent years. Literature suggests that these tools can enhance students’ literacy skills, as well as improve student collaboration. Society is becoming increasingly digitized and the Swedish preschool curriculum includes technology and science as priority areas of learning. Preschool teachers’ knowledge is of utmost importance in helping carrying out this mandate. Since there have been few studies on the use of digital tablets in preschool technology and science education in a Swedish context, there is an urgent need to explore the role and influence of digital tools as teaching tools, in an effort to exploit the potential pedagogical opportunities offered by digital technology. The current study investigates what features and aspects of digital tablet technology preschool teachers use to teach technology and science in preschools. Preschool educators throughout Sweden responded to an online survey consisting of 20 closed and 6 open items that probed teachers’ use of digital tablets. Results show that programming, invention, construction, creation, entrepreneurship and designing with the support of digital tablets are emerging technology education activities in preschool. This finding is in line with a revised Swedish curriculum to be completed in 2018. Teacher scaffolding in conjunction with different digital tablet applications could help to develop children’s ability and confidence to invent, program, create and design. Future work will consist of conducting interviews with preschool teachers to obtain a deeper understanding of the themes that emerged from the survey.